Sunday, 11 May 2014

Cycling, Castles and Coffee

I promised myself that I would get out on the Long Haul Trucker this weekend, so it was a bit of a disappointment to wake on Saturday morning to find a cold rain lashing the kitchen window. I waited until about 07:30 but it didn't look like the rain was going to ease, so on with the waterproofs and off I splashed .

As usual the thought of going out was far worse than the reality and I was soon enjoying the cycle down to Belhaven bay and along the burn. A Grey Heron lazily flapped away before I could take capture a picture of it.

From East Linton it's a short climb up onto the quiet winding road to Hailes. All around there was the scent of gorse and the hedges were full of song birds. I saw greenfinches, goldfinches, yellow hammers all flitting across the road searching for food.

At Hailes I pushed the trucker into the castle grounds. The little burn running down to the river was showing the benefit of all the rain with a tiny waterfall.

I found shelter from the rain in the old kitchens of the castle and unpacked the stove to heat up my latest cold press coffee.

Shelter from the rain, the smell of coffee heating, a view over the river, it doesn't get much better.

I've been reducing the time I leave the coffee to brew, this was only nine hours and I think that suits my taste buds better, not being quite as 'sweet' as when I leave it for eleven hours.

A relaxing breakfast in a 13th century castle, then back on the bike for an easy cycle back to Belhaven Bay where there were horses out exercising in the distance.

A pretty easy sixteen miles, but a good start to the weekend and inspiration to get out regularly again.